[Joeboy]

I presume, with Windows 10 support ending this year, there's going to be a glut of used laptops.

[drillsteps5]

I thought so too, but it turns out there's a variety of ways to circumvent MS's hardware gatekeeping, such as CPU requirement (see: Tyny11 see: Rufus).

At least at this time, Windows 11 is not that much heavier/resource-needy than Windows 10. There's a small but non-negligible number of people running Win11 on things like Thinkpad x250 or T450 (Inter 5th gen CPU), for example.

The regular Joe Schmoe prob won't be able to do that, but he's not likely to use 2015 laptop in 2024 to begin with...

[mikepurvis]

This will be an interesting one to observe; will Canonical and others be able to capitalize on the Microsoft FUD around secure boot to convert users?

Alternatively, can the community come up with some interesting uses for all the machines?

[binkHN]

> Alternatively, can the community come up with some interesting uses for all the machines?

Google has targeted this model with ChromeOS Flex.

[pjmlp]

No, this has become a meme of the Year of Desktop Linux.

Everytime Microsoft does something that apparently pisses off people, we get tons of suggestions that now everyone is finally going to migrate in droves into GNU/Linux, and then nothing happens.

Meanwhile the only Linux based devices that are actually successful among normies, are those that hide the fact there is the Linux kernel running underneath, expose no CLI, and have everything done in basic graphical workflows without any FOSS religion.

Chromebooks, Android, DVD and BluRay players, TV setup boxes, SmartTVs,....

[mossTechnician]

One common suggestion I've seen: convert your old laptop into a server.